Optical coherence tomography (“OCT”) is a technology that allows for noninvasive, cross-sectional optical imaging in biological as well as non-biological media with high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. OCT is an extension of low coherence or white-light interferometry, in which a low temporal coherence light source is utilized to obtain precise localization of reflections internal to a probed structure along an optic axis (i.e., as a function of depth into the sample). An optical beam is directed at the tissue, and a small portion of this light that reflects from sub-surface features is collected. In an OCT instrument, an optical interferometer is used in such a manner as to detect only coherent light. In the process, the depth and the intensity of the light reflected from a sub-surface feature is obtained. A three-dimensional image can be built by scanning, as in a sonar or radar system. The most commonly used interferometers in these devices are Michelson interferometer and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), which are well-known.
Typical OCT imaging systems comprise a Michelson Interferometer. The signal is detected by a grating based spectrometer equipped with a linear detector array (or a line-scan camera). Further, OCT interferometric systems known in the art are complex in arranging optical devices, expensive and are not portable.